In the September 2009 quarter, the trend estimate of total accommodation takings for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms decreased by 0.9% to $1,880.7 million compared with the June quarter 2009.

Over the same period, the seasonally adjusted estimate dropped by 0.8% to $1883.9 million.

ROOM OCCUPANCY RATE

The September quarter 2009 trend estimate room occupancy rate of 61.9% for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms was 0.3 percentage points lower than the previous quarter.

This is the ninth consecutive quarterly decline in the trend estimate of room occupancy rates for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms.

This issue presents results from the September quarter 2009 Survey of Tourist Accommodation (STA) for the following categories of establishments:

licensed hotels and resorts with facilities and 5 or more rooms

motels, private hotels and guest houses with facilities and 5 or more rooms

serviced apartments with 5 or more units

caravan parks with 40 or more powered sites

holiday flats, units and houses of letting entities with 15 or more rooms or units

visitor hostels with 25 or more bed spaces.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.

SUMMARY COMMENTARY

ORIGINAL

Hotels, motels and serviced apartments

This summary contains key findings for original estimates. While trend and seasonally adjusted data are only available for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, original estimates have two additional data series comprising hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 to 14 rooms and 5 or more rooms.

Original series are impacted by seasonal variations and irregular or non-seasonal influences. Comparison between quarters should be made with caution.

Accommodation takings

In the September quarter 2009, accommodation takings were $2,007.3 million for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms, comprising $1930.6 million for those establishments with 15 or more rooms and $76.7 million for those with 5 to 14 rooms.

Takings from accommodation, Hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms - Australia

Accommodation takings in September quarter 2009 for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms were highest in New South Wales ($581.2 million) and Queensland ($542.8 million).

For Australia, the September quarter 2009 average takings per room night occupied were $145.08 for establishments with 5 or more rooms. This was heavily influenced by hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms which contributed 96.2% of total takings, and had an average takings per room night occupied of $147.30. The average for 5 to 14 room establishments was $105.15

Average takings (a), Australia

Room occupancy rate

The room occupancy rate for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was 61.8% in the September quarter 2009. For hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, the room occupancy rate was 63.1%, while demand for 5 to 14 room hotels, motels and serviced apartments was lower, as reflected by a room occupancy rate of 45.1%.

Room occupancy rate, Australia

Room nights occupied

Room nights occupied were 13.8 million in the September quarter 2009 for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms. For hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, room nights occupied were 13.1 million in September quarter 2009, while for establishments with 5 to 14 rooms, room nights occupied were 0.7 million.

New South Wales contributed the highest proportion (30.5%) of room nights occupied for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, closely followed by Queensland at 29.1%.

Average length of stay

The average length of stay in September quarter 2009 for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was 2.2 days. For establishments with 5 to 14 rooms, the average length of stay for 2009 has remained at 1.9 days.

Queensland (2.7 days) reported the longest average length of stay for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, followed by Western Australia (2.4 days). South Australia had the shortest average length of stay being 1.9 days.

Star grading

In the September quarter 2009, the room occupancy rate for five-star hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was 73.3% compared with 38.0% for one-star establishments. For hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, the room occupancy rate was 73.6% for five-star establishments compared with 38.0% for five-star establishments with 5 to 14 rooms.

In the 5-14 rooms category, room occupancy rates in the September quarter 2009, four-star establishments had the highest rate with 49.2% and one-star establishments had the lowest at 30.2%.

Occupancy rates, Stargrading - September Qtr 2009

In the September quarter 2009, the average takings per room night occupied for five-star hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was $223.39 compared with $91.74 for establishments with one star. The corresponding September quarter 2009 average takings for establishments with 15 or more rooms was $223.25 for five-star establishments and $101.17 for one-star establishments.

In comparison, establishments with 5 to 14 rooms had the highest average takings per room night occupied for five-star establishments ($255.93), but lowest average takings per room night occupied for one-star establishments ($65.11).

Average takings (a), Star grading - September Qtr 2009

Caravan parks, holiday flats, units and houses, and visitor hostels

Accommodation takings

In the September quarter 2009, accommodation takings for caravan parks were $278.5 million. Of this, New South Wales contributed the highest amount with $79.2 million or 28.4% of the Australian total for the quarter.

Short-term caravan park takings were $233.8 million in the September quarter 2009, 84.0% of total caravan park takings.

Accommodation takings for holiday flats, units and houses were $154.1 million in the September quarter 2009. Real estate takings accounted for 23.3% of total holiday flats, units and houses takings, the remainder were for other letting entities.

For visitor hostels, accommodation takings were $54.4 million in the September quarter 2009.

Occupancy rate

The site occupancy rate for all caravan parks in the September quarter 2009 was 54.6%. Short-term caravan park occupancy rate was 51.6% and long-term caravan park occupancy rate was 75.1%.

For holiday flats, units and houses, the unit occupancy rate was 45.1% in the September quarter 2009.

The bed occupancy rate for visitor hostels in Australia in the September quarter 2009 was 47.9%. The Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory and Queensland had the highest bed occupancy rates for the September quarter with 60.7%, 60.1% and 57.0% respectively. While Tasmania had the lowest bed occupancy rate for visitor hostels at 13.9%

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